I can see a real transformation taking place where the community is the school and the
school is the community.
I love coming to school, especially Knowsley Lane Primary School.
They do not just come in and deliver a package, they come in and they are the school.
Twelve years now I have been here, initially as a student in my final placement, I worked
my way through as a Year 2 teacher, a Year 6 teacher, leader of maths across the school,
deputy head and then finally principal.
So I have seen the journey the school has been on, the journey the community has been
on and the difference Everton in the Community has made.
We are one of the most deprived schools in Knowsley based on our free school meals percentages
and actually we are surrounded by gang culture.
We did have to close the school as it was a crime scene. There were bullet casings on
the playground.
The children you can imagine were very shocked by that incident but we advertised we would
have Everton in the Community in the very next day following that event and we had 96
per cent attendance.
I was told when I went in it was going to be lively and that the kids would be challenging.
There was a lot of work to be done and structure to be put in place.
But working alongside Linda made it quite easy to implement.
We need to make sure we have early intervention for academic and social skills and how we
expect children to conduct themselves in school and in lessons and in the wider community.
Everton in the Community has tailored that package for us.
If we can get the right information and the right experiences into the children at a young
age, hopefully that will plant the seed that will stick with them as they go from primary
school to secondary school.
And who knows where it could take them when they go into their adult lives.
We have introduced active morning breakfast clubs, the children will come in and take
part in physical activity. They will also have a breakfast, so we know when they go
to class they have had their breakfast and blown off a bit of steam and they are ready
to learn and embrace their day.
It started off when we came in that two or three would be waiting at the door at 8 o’clock.
Now we have 13, 14, 15 kids waiting on us.
By 8.15, 8,20, we have a half full of 50, 60 kids taking part in sport before they go
to school.
Paddy is part of the staff along with the other coaches.
He understands the children don’t always have the best opportunities and he needs to
make sure he provides those and he does. He will make sure they are focused in lessons.
When he walks down the corridor, he will glance in the lessons to catch a glimpse of what
they are doing then have a conversation them about that.
Playground lunchtime, after school clubs, he is so enthusiastic about the learning of
the children.
He is really great and funny and he teaches us about self-esteem and it makes me want to
become like Paddy because he teaches us a lot and it is great.
A current Year 6 pupil who did not like to take part in PE many years ago is now actively
taking part in PE because of Paddy getting to know his personal interests and tweaking
the lessons around that.
I don’t think you can dip in and out.
You have to go in wholeheartedly.
And when you put yourself into it, you drive more, you push forward more to give the kids
the experiences, to give the kids that little chance they might not otherwise have.
Because you have bought into what the school is about, and they have bought into what Everton
is about, you take a huge amount of pride out of it, seeing the kids going on and doing well.
In two years going from 40 per cent in their reading scores up to 69 per cent, so an improvement
of 29 to 30 per cent over a couple of years in performance data is really incredible.
What I have seen today is they are helping the staff in the school and the local community
teach these kids you can go further than you thought, and you can reach higher than you
dreamed.
We have seen from pure statistics the impact on the children.
They love Everton coming into school. You see them smiling, you see them enjoying it
and it is a life experience they may never get anywhere else.
We are now three years into the programme in the school and the children know what is
expected, they know what the standards are, they know what I expect from them.
In return, I know what they expect from me.
I think with that respect, the issues I face in here are few and far between, in terms
of behaviour.
It is so successful here, the relationship between the Club and the school in its local
community, that headteachers will be queuing up to saying, ‘We want this’.
So our big challenge now is, how do we replicate it, how do we put a business model together
to say, ‘We can all do this’?
When we do start going public on this - we are talking about having visitor days and
hosting a conference to let people see the magic of what is happening – this could
spiral. It could be a model for everybody, one day.
We just want it to go from strength to strength. There is always more. You can never rest on
what you have done.
You always want to look for bigger, you always want to look for more impact, more experience.
We want to broaden that. Yes, in the school, but who knows where else?